Eritreans for peace and justice in Berlin and friends of Eritrea will have a day of mouring in order to pray and pay tribute for the victims of Lampedusa with a candle light action on 18th October, from 4:00 to 18:00 local time in the afternoon in Tiergarten, near Str. des 17. Juni.

All Eritreans and friends of Eritrea in Berlin and surroundings are invited to join us.

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Three deadly Mediterranean shipwrecks that claimed the lives of hundreds of would-be asylum-seekers fleeing war and repression sharpened calls Saturday for humanitarian corridors to allow safe passage to Europe.

At least 34 people drowned in Maltese waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa when a boat packed with hundreds of Syrians and Palestinians capsized on Friday, the same day another 12 migrants died in a shipwreck off of Egypt.

Those tragedies came just eight days after at least 339 Eritreans died when their boat sank within sight of Lampedusa, in one of the worst verified migrant sea tragedies on the Mediterranean.

Facing unrest and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, many migrants risk the often perilous journey to Lampedusa, a gateway to Europe just 70 miles (113 kilometers) from Africa, in rickety boats procured by people smugglers who charge more than 1,600 euros ($2,200).

Most are asylum seekers, fleeing civil war in Syria or repression and mandatory conscription in Eritrea, unlike the waves of economic migrants a decade ago. …